Argentbadger

I always love traveling down to Vapnartak (or Vappa as it is generally known) for the Malifaux event. Most importantly, it is a really smoothly organised tournament which is big enough to bring players from far across the country, giving me a big chance to meet new opponents. The event also takes place within a wargames show and the round times are always set up to allow a long break to wander round and see the demonstration games and stalls set out. Joe and I decided that it would involve too much driving to go there and back in one day so we found a cheap place to stay nearby on the Saturday night and arranged only to drive back after the event. Game 1: Neverborn (me) vs Ten Thunders (Dan Haslam) Strategy: Interference, standard deployment Schemes Pool: Claim Jump, Eliminate the Leadership, Dig Their Graves, Leave Your Mark, Hidden Trap Neverborn: Claim Jump, Dig Their Graves Ten Thunders: Claim Jump, Dig Their Graves Crews Neverborn: Lilith (Beckon Malifaux, On Wings of Darkness), Barbaros (Rapid Growth, One Thousand Faces), Nekima (Mimic's Blessing, One Thousand Faces), 3 Terror Tots, Young Nephilim, Cherub Ten Thunders: Lucas McCabe (Promises, Badge of Speed, Glowing Sabre), Shadow Emissary (Conflux of Exploration, Strangemetal Shirt), Kang (Equality), Lone Swordsman (Recalled Training), Luna, Guild Hound, Obsidian Oni I picked up the Lilith box recently and have really been enjoying using her. After several test games it became apparent that I was terrible a positioning around Black Blood so the crew gradually mutated into variations on the current list where everything has the ability. The Tots are great with Dig Their Graves here as I can Sprint them forward, drop a scheme marker then Tangle Shadows to swap in Nekima and be horrible to something. One Thousand Faces on Barbaros and Nekima are intended to change into Fears Given form, mainly as a hand-drain rather than with the idea of actually causing much damage. Barbaros can make it really hard to deal with Nekima by putting up Challenge and positioning neatly. Rapid Growth is something that I find amusing and is relevant often enough that I don't begrudge spending a soulstone to have it on Barbaros. Finally, the Cherub allows me to drop markers for a (0) action in some places which is obviously useful for my schemes. It also has an amazing ranged attack for a bit more control. I figured that Claim Jump would be a good option as I could place my minions near the centre line and hop from one side to the other as demanded by the strategy; in addition it synergises nicely with Dig Their Graves in that anything coming in to deny Claim Jump risks being killed and giving me the points for it instead. Turn 1: The Emissary pushes the Lone Swordsman forward and uses the Shirt while McCabe fails to Black Flash the Oni; instead he gives the Badge to the Oni and the Sabre to the Hound. We both spend a few activations moving our cheap stuff around somewhere near the centre, and in my case dropping a couple of scheme markers with Sprinting Tots. Eventually, Nekima gets swapped for the Young in the middle using Tangle Shadows as I can see an opportunity to deal with the Lone Swordsman before he uses Recalled Training and cuts his way through my stuff. Before this, the Hound charges a Tot who has helpfully dropped a scheme marker to let it do so for 1AP, killing it with a single swing of the Glowing Sabre (the image of Hounds using the Glowing Sabre always entertains me) and scoring Dig Their Graves. Both Barbaros and Nekima swap One Thousand Faces for Fears Given Form. Nekima charges the Lone Swordsman, killing him with Blood For Blood, engaging both Luna and the Hound and scoring for Dig Their Graves in the process. Turn 2: Barbaros charges the Shadow Emissary for no real effect other than to engage it and the Oni; he also puts up Challenge as the main point is to be in the most annoying place possible. The Oni has similarly little impact hitting Barbaros in return. The Cherub hits McCabe with its fantastic arrows, Slowing him in the process. He then wastes his activation failing to get round Challenge (as most of Dan's good cards were used keeping Barbaros off the Emissary). The Tots continue to drop scheme markers and the Emissary hurts Barbaros a little and pushes Kang into a nice place and makes him fast. Ever one to oblige, Lilith Roots Kang in place, so the big chap is obliged to spend his activation throwing hot coals into the melee nearby (and hitting the Oni twice). The Hound pokes another Tot and Luna explodes thanks to Fears Given Form on Nekima, scoring me another point for Dig Their Graves. Nekima polishes off the Hound and moves to engage McCabe. I score for Claim Jump and Interference. Turn 3: Kang charges Barbaros, who issues his own Challenge and bops Kang away so he's on the line between quarters for the strategy. The Shadow Emissary and the Oni continue to flail at Barbaros but he's hanging on with a few wounds left. Nekima pokes McCabe off his horse and kills Kang. McCabe successfully Black Flashes the Oni so Lilith charges in to kill it for Dig Their Graves. The Cherub kills McCabe with a lucky moderate damage. I score for the strategy and Claim Jump. Turn 4: The Emissary finally kills Barbaros (Dig Their Graves) before Nekima cuts the dragon in two. Neverborn win 10 - 2 (full score for me; 2 for Dig Their Graves for Dan). That was a fun game and Dan was a pleasure to play with. We spoke a bit after the game about other things he could have done; the biggest one was handing me the Lone Swordsman in turn 1 for nothing. I'm not sure how I feel about losing the Tot in turn 1. On the one hand, if I hadn't dropped the scheme marker I would not have been charged by the Hound, but on the other hand having that scheme marker let me get started scoring on Dig Their Graves early. And it did leave both dogs in a place where Dan had to worry about Fears Given Form and be potential victims for Nekima.

Nice going! It reads like the Lucius player did really well to keep the score at 6 - 8 as I really think that the match-up favours the Viktorias heavily. I'd second Admiralvorkraft's suggestion to step up to 50SS games as the whole system plays much more nicely at that level.

Please could I ask you to slightly fix the first round pairings to keep players from the same groups apart? For example, all the Scotland-based players face each other fairly regularly so it would be nice to play someone from elsewhere after travelling a couple of hundred miles. Obviously, rounds two and three are fair game for the sorting process. Thanks for your hard work as always Chris!

Paid for Gareth Henry and me. No lunches for either of us, but please put us on the evening meal list (as long as it's not the same place as last year!).

Paid for Gareth Henry and me. Can't believe Ben and Joe beat me to the punch.

Paid for Gareth Henry and me. Any chance to extend to 4 rounds?

Unfortunately Gareth Henry can't make this event any more. Please let me know if you would like his ticket.

I'd be kind of interested, but not sure if it'll be worth travelling down alone. Is there any possibility to expand beyond 18 players and I can round up some folks to drive down in a group?

Thanks very much Bengt, Mutter and Math Mathonwy. Bengt: thanks for pointing out about the non-peon part of Leave Your Mark. Mutter is correct that the Austringer's upgrade had started on the Emissary so we did get that right. Math Mathonwy: Wow, I had not noticed that distinction about enemy scheme markers before; I owe Martin an apology. You are correct that I got the Reporter to interact to remove a Guild scheme marker using My Bidding. I don't think that it affected the overall results though. I really like being able to get 'peer review' on these games as it will help me to remember the rules better in future.

Terrific report as usual; thanks for sharing it and taking the time to write it up. The pictures are really helpful. I feel that the Outcast player could make more of the Viktorias' threat range. For example, I like Viktoria of Ashes with Sisters in Spirit, Sisters in Fury and Synchronised Slaying, then Viktoria of Blood with Mark of Shezuul and Oathkeeper. This gives a really long range option to slingshot Viktoria of Blood into a clump of models and also the chain activation ability to let Viktoria of Ashes fire her up with Sisters in Fury before she goes. Looking at the picture at the start of turn 2, Viktoria of Ashes could have activated, put up Sisters in Fury and placed Viktoria of Blood where needed, then chain activated to send her into Wong, Gracie and Old Cranky, almost certainly killing them all between up to four attacks plus Whirlwinds (Wong might have been able to Squeal away depending on the charge position). Obviously the Outcasts won anyway so maybe it is needless advice, but it has been quite effective for me.

In addition to Mo11usq's video reports (which are excellent), I have a couple of tournament reports now posted in the battle report subforum with Collodi. Masters of the Path December's End In both events I used only Collodi so there are 6 games reported using it. The latter event was fixed master, but the first was one where I just decided to stick with Collodi anyway. Just because Collodi has synergy with minions doesn't mean that you need to have a crew which contains only minions and nothing else. If killing stuff is the order of the day then you can take Nekima, Teddy or whoever you fancy. If you prefer high damage minions anyway then Illuminated plus Beckoner can be effective, or just take Stitched Together. Presumably Rougarou would also be effective but I have no experience there. I can say that I haven't had a big problem just putting things down with lots of low damage attacks anyway, especially as Collodi can really reduce return fire by applying Slow or Idle Hands as needed to anything scary coming at you. Hard To Wound, Hard To Kill, armour etc have not been a problem for Collodi in my experience unless they are coupled with the ability to somehow reduce damage to zero (usually with Soulstones). In general I'm not really trying to kill enemies with it (though I don't turn down the opportunity if it comes up) but just to cripple them with conditions. Of course, if the other crew has a lot of condition removal then you must be careful of what you're trying to do here, but unless you are facing something like Shen Long, Sensei Yu and the Shadow Effigy (which I do all the time) then there is a limit to what the other crew can mitigate as most condition removal is quite hard to use, requiring often a moderate suited card. If you desperately need an out of activation action from something that is not a minion or puppet then you can always cast Pull The Strings and cheat/stone the My Bidding trigger since it helpfully doesn't specify that it only works on enemies. I've used this to move Nekima and Lazarus around if I need the extra threat range. Stitched Together combine really well with Threads of Fate (allowing them to go Fast at the cost of two wounds) and Fear Not The Sword from the Brutal Effigy shared via the Fated upgrade on Collodi. Due to the high risk nature of their attack I'm much more likely to cheat to win the duel so it is more often that they will be able to heal. And 3 AP on a Stitched Together can be rather nasty. I really like Bunraku; they synergise well with Collodi in general but can work well enough without its support too. I often seem to find them taking Fear Not The Sword and Fast one turn then rushing off out of the 'ball of death' to deal with some threat. Inevitably the schemes will require that your crew splits up somehow so it is important not to get hung up on keeping everything within 6 of Collodi. If the opportunity presents then Snatch can bring a victim closer, but the range is quite short so I think that in practice this plays a lot less like a mini-Lure than I had expected. Lazarus is good with Collodi partly because of the Assimilate ability (though it does conflict with Self-Repair, so make sure you've got something useful to do with the ability if you use it) and partly because he's a nice big armoured target that can take some of the attention of the rest of your crew. No-one wants to give Lazarus free shots at something in the open so this can force some interesting positional choices on the other player. Finally, if Sybarite is the player I think that they are, then I also recommend attending to their posts as I believe that they are quite skilled at Malifaux.

Game 3: Neverborn (me) vs Outcasts (Ali Fergusson) Strategy: Extraction, flank deployment Schemes Pool: Claim Jump, Eliminate the Leadership, Leave Your Mark, Recover Evidence, Tail 'Em Neverborn: Leave Your Mark, Tail 'Em Outcasts: Leave Your Mark, Recover Evidence Crews Neverborn: Collodi (Strum The Threads, Fated), Arcane Effigy, Brutal Effigy, Barbaros (Rapid Growth), 3 Terror Tots, Lazarus, Bunraku Outcasts: Tara (Knowledge of Eternity, Obliteration Symbiote, Survivalist), Nothing Beast (Void Shield, Tally Sheet), Freikorps Librarian (Oathkeeper), Johana (Scramble), Big Jake, Void Wretch, Ronin, Malifaux Child Finally a game in which killing all my stuff wasn't a primary goal for the other crew. I wanted to try a Nephilim-heavy crew for a change as I feel like Tots should be good for gumming things up and also have the speed to get markers down for Leave Your Mark. Since I had the Tots I decided to put Rapid Growth on Barbaros; the idea was not particularly to focus on getting Young / Mature Nephilim but simply to have the possibility to do so if the opportunity came up. For one soulstone it felt worth it. The Bunraku was a late addition to the crew as I felt that a bit more speed might be useful. I chose Leave Your Mark partly as a result of having the Tots and partly just to be a change from Claim Jump; the two schemes are remarkably similar, at least superficially. Tail 'Em was chosen despite Ali having only two targets because I had so many minions that I was sure I'd be able to keep some scoring going. Turn 1: Tara Reactivates the makes the Nothing Beast Fast and buries it. My Effigies power up and push Collodi. The Child makes Johana fast and our crews generally converge but respect each other's threat ranges. I'm really concerned about the Nothing Beast getting unburied, focusing and tearing up Collodi so some of my moves are to check the movement options on that side of the board. Lazarus Assimilates My Will from Collodi, making it take a Pull The Strings attack against him with the My Bidding trigger so I can move Lazarus into firing range of the Librarian who is out of normal range but also not in cover. The actual firing is not hugely effective, missing twice, but I do get a straight flip on one so cheat in severe damage to land some wounds on Tara. The Bunraku goes Fast and charges Tara, mainly to try to pin her in place; Johana steams over and smashes the little puppet into matchwood. This has the effect of dropping the Nothing Beast out. Collodi puts considerable effort into hampering the Nothing Beast but only manages to draw some soulstones and the Void Shield out of the big monster. Slightly to my surprise, the Nothing Beast charges Lazarus for minimal effect; it would have been tricky but not impossible to get it onto Collodi I think. Tara herself moves round the forest. Turn 2: The Nothing Beast focuses then handily flips the Black Joker on an attack on the Lazarus. It does splat the nearby Tot in a single hit though. The Brutal Effigy shoots the Librarian, killing her, then chain activates to Barbaros who moves up to tickle Big Jake and put up Challenge. Tara fails to bury Lazarus. The Terror Tot furthest up the table Sprints then drops a scheme marker. Johana hurts Barbaros and the Arcane Effigy puts Tail 'Em on the Nothing Beast. Collodi spectacularly fails to do anything substantial to Tara and the Ronin moves to deny my Leave Your Mark from the Tot. We both score for Extraction and I score Tail 'Em. Turn 3: Ali reveals Recover Evidence so I put the markers on my most inaccessible pieces. Johana flurries Barbaros so I cheat the Red Joker on the first swing to push her away with the Knock Aside trigger. Collodi kills the Nothing Beast and Barbaros pokes Big Jake again. Tara runs away to the far end of the board so I can't possibly catch her for Tail 'Em. The Ronin polishes off my Tot before it can run away and drop more markers. Lazarus focuses and fires at Barbaros, then cheats in moderate damage to kill Big Jake. Finally, the Void Wretch drops a scheme marker. Ali scores for Leave Your Mark and I score for Extraction. Turn 4: Collodi sidles across the board and kills the Void Wretch. Tara takes Reactivate and starts running back to where she was last turn. Lazarus moves to engage her simply on the basis that Ali must have a plan for her to do something and I might as well try to stop it from happening. Johana charges Barbaros and gets another go of the Knock Aside trigger; the Arcane Effigy kills her. The Ronin removes my scheme marker and does Seppuku. Barbaros moves up to drop another scheme marker and the Child disentangles itself from the Tot and stands there to deny me Leave Your Mark again. This is where my attrition has come to work for me as I can just have the Tot drop a marker instead. Tara fails to disengage from Lazarus. I score for the strategy and Leave Your Mark. Turn 5: We're pretty much out of time and last activation could be called at any minute. Big Jake reappears next to Tara and recovers some Evidence. The Terror Tot puts down a scheme marker. Tara finally gets away from Lazarus and runs off to drop a scheme marker so the robot follows to deny Leave Your Mark. The Brutal Effigy applies the condition for Tail 'Em to Tara and the game ends. We both score for the strategy; I score for Leave Your Mark and Tail 'Em. Neverborn win 8 - 4 (4 for Extraction, 2 for Leave Your Mark and 2 for Tail 'Em for me; 2 for Extraction, 1 for Leave Your Mark and 1 for Recover Evidence for Ali). That was a terrific game; Ali is really improving at Malifaux as he plays it more often. I was impressed particularly with the good way that Ali used his resources to keep the Nothing Beast alive and well in turn 1 though I as mentioned I was quite surprised to see Lazarus as the choice of charge target as I would say that he must be one the least vulnerable miniatures to the Nothing Beast in the entire game. Of course I was trying to make it unappealing to get the Nothing Beast into Collodi but I think it would probably have been possible and I would have been facing a very uphill struggle if Collodi had been killed early in the game. Rapid Growth on Barbaros didn't end up doing much but I think it was worth the cost to have the possibility to get a Young Nephilim; better flips could have seen me get one from the Malifaux Child in turn 3 but it was not to be. Barbaros in general ended up just doing what he does best: standing in the middle of a crew a forcing them to deal with him. Based on previous games I find he does usually die (he especially hates it when anyone ignores armour) but the idea is to make the other crew expend a lot of AP to do it. One interesting thing that I discussed with Gareth in the pub later was Ali's choice to move Tara right back to deny me a point for Tail 'Em. I feel that the opportunity cost of not having any contribution from your master is generally not worth it to save a VP, though I can see that there are some cases where it would be correct move. In this case it allowed me to get a big leg up on attrition by dealing with the Nothing Beast, Johana and Big Jake in close succession. So once the scores are all counted, I am pleased to see that I get first place. Even more pleasing was the positions of my not-actually-a-team team mates as Joe got second, Gareth third, V sixth and Jonny eighth, so very well done to all of them. I had a great time and the trip to Aberdeen always results in a fun event. Thanks to Martin, Callum and Ali for three fun games of Malifaux, and to Martin again for running everything.

Game 2: Neverborn (me) vs Guild (Callum Palin) Strategy: Headhunter, corner deployment Schemes Pool: Claim Jump, Frame For Murder, Accusation, Show of Force, Hidden Trap Neverborn: Claim Jump, Frame for Murder (Stitched Together) Guild: Show of Force, Frame for Murder (Nino Ortega) Crews Neverborn: Collodi (Strum The Threads, Fated, Threads Of Fate), Arcane Effigy, Brutal Effigy, Lazarus, Barbaros, 2 Bunraku, Stitched Together Guild: Lucas McCabe (Glowing Sabre, Badge of Speed, Promises), Luna, Brutal Emissary (Conflux of Exploration, Elixir of Life), Executioner (Ready To Work), Nino Ortega (Hair Trigger), Austringer, Mounted Guard This strategy felt much more comfortable for having a ball of fighty puppets and just keeping them topped up on wounds with Collodi while using my master for a spot of control. I also took Barbaros with some kind of plan for just sitting him behind the line of engagement with Challenge up to draw cards. I've enjoyed Bunraku for their high speed and ability to pull pieces to where I want them to be, though after several games I think I have yet to manage to get even a single trigger out of them. Stitched Together are hilarious with Fear Not The Sword (from the Brutal Effigy) as they can go Fast thanks to Strum The Threads then heal the wounds caused by hitting stuff with Gamble Your Life; because of the damage they take if the attack is missed I am generally inclined to cheat to win. Even if they lose, there is a change to pick up reactivate then heal with subsequent attacks. Having written all that, I chose to put Frame For Murder on the Stitched Together. My other scheme was Claim Jump as I didn't fancy Show of Force at all (indeed, I didn't even pick for it, which may have been a mistake) and the other schemes involved a lot of messing about with the other crew when I wanted to focus on just killing them and picking up their heads. As you can see, my deployment is terrible: Barbaros is perfectly placed to spray Black Blood over half of my crew. Turn 1: Nino Rapid Fires into Barbaros. I cheat high to dodge one shot and stone away the damage from another but there is still a bit of Black Blood damage splashed around; overall a needless waste of my resources which was completely avoidable. The Brutal Emissary passes the Elixir of Life to the Mounted Guard so that they can all get past the mess of forests in the Guild deployment zone. The Effigies power up Collodi and poke it to move my master forward. A Bunraku takes Fast then moves and charges Nino to put a couple of points of damage on him. McCabe reactivates the Mounted Guard, passes the Sabre and Badge to the Executioner and the Elixir to Nino; the latter is pushed back out of the Bunraku's grasp. I can see that the Executioner is being primed to get flung into the centre of my crew (or worse, to kill Collodi) with the Mounted Guard, so Barbaros, the Stitched Together and a Bunraku move to make the needed movement tricky. Eventually Callum gets cold feet and the Executioner ends up just passing his activation without coming for me. Lazarus Assimilates My Will from Collodi to make the Bunraku pull Nino back with Snatch. Collodi then puts Nino down to a single wound remaining with Burning on him (Callum was out of cards to prevent it) as I think that Frame For Murder is either on him or the Executioner; helpfully the Ortega burns to death. Turn 2: The Brutal Effigy gives Collodi Fear Not The Sword (who shares it out) and drops a scheme marker, then chain activates the Stitched Together. The Stitched Together does some nasty damage to the Mounted Guard. McCabe misses a shot at Barbaros, heals the Mounted Guard and passes the Elixir to the Austringer and the Sabre to the Mounted Guard. My Arcane Effigy picks up Nino's head then chains to Barbaros who charges the Mounted Guard for some fairly trivial damage; my main goal was to gum up the Guild crew with Challenge. Stupidly I forgot about the Brutal Emissary's abilities and Barbaros is promptly buried. Oh well. The Mounted Guard charges into the Brutal Effigy for little effect, pulling the Executioner with him. Collodi slows the big chap and generally makes sure that neither the Guard nor the Executioner will do much of any consequence. The Bunraku on the right goes Fast and charges Luna, killing her with two lucky moderate damage flips. In the end, nothing at all dies in the scrum in the centre even though I get all trigger-happy with Lazarus and have him lob grenades into the middle of the mess. Callum does manage to deny my Claim Jump but I score for the strategy. Turn 3: The Arcane Effigy charges and kills the Executioner (who was looking rather poorly after the mauling he got last turn); the Brutal Effigy chain activates to pick up the head. The Brutal Emissary fails to hurt a Bunraku and the Stitched Together goes Fast and does some nasty damage to McCabe but is also knocked to a single wound itself. Callum can't let me have another go with the Stitched Together so kills it with the Mounted Guard to score my 2VP for Frame For Murder; of course I was hoping that he would use McCabe to do the job. McCabe does throw himself into the mess in the middle of the board. The Bunraku in the centre finishes off the Mounted Guard and Lazarus Auto-Fires into the big mess but only succeeds in hitting Barbaros twice. Collodi kills the Emissary; I consider finishing off McCabe too (since he has only one wound remaining) but decide not to let Callum have another activation this turn. Barbaros Nimbles round McCabe and stabs the Austringer to push it away from the centre of the board and therefore avoid it scoring for Show Of Force, but only after it has picked up a head. We both score Headhunter and I score for Claim Jump. Turn 4: Barbaros pokes at McCabe and throws up his Challenge. McCabe make a bit of a meal of attacking the Bunraku thanks to Callum's terrible cards (he Black Jokered one of the Challenge checks and needed to cheat another despite being on positive flips from Promises). Collodi kills the Austringer, and Callum has seen enough to end it. Neverborn win 9 - 1 (4 for Headhunter, 2 for Frame For Murder and 3 for Claim Jump for me; 1 for Headhunter for Callum). As always, Callum was a classy opponent and made me work probably harder than the scoreline suggests. This game really hinged on two moments, both in the first turn. The first was when Callum found that Nino would die to burning and therefore not score any points for Frame For Murder, which really knocked the wind out of his sails. The second was when, after spending almost the whole of his first turn AP turbo charging the Executioner to come and kill Collodi, he realised that the positioning of the rest of my crew would not make it possible and he aborted the whole process. One of the interesting parts about Malifaux is AP efficiency and the upshot of this was that Callum had wasted almost his entire crew to set something up. From my side, I was obviously quite pleased with the way things worked out. My biggest errors were both with Barbaros, a piece that I love but can't quite seem to ever get right. As mentioned above, the deployment of Barbaros was absolutely dreadful and could easily have ended up costing me much more dearly in turn 1. Then in turn 2, I really gave him away to the Brutal Emissary; slightly more clever positioning could have probably have at least forced Callum to waste an AP moving into position.

Gareth, Jonny, Joe, V and I traveled up north to Aberdeen to attend probably the northernmost Malifaux event venue in the UK: ABZ Games. The scene in Aberdeen is still growing but numbers were bolstered by travelers from various locations so there was a good mix of players attending. December's End was a fixed master event which suited me fine as I've only used Collodi so far in Neverborn; probably Lilith will get a try next. In the end there was a late cancellation so the TO, Martin, got to play and I was drawn against him in round one. Game 1: Neverborn (me) vs Guild (Martin Cairns) Strategy: Interference, standard deployment Schemes Pool: Claim Jump, Frame For Murder, Dig Their Graves, Hunting Party, Search The Ruins Neverborn: Claim Jump, Frame for Murder (Marionette with mirror) Guild: Claim Jump, Frame for Murder (Guild Pathfinder) Crews Neverborn: Collodi (Strum The Threads, Bag of Props), Arcane Effigy, Brutal Effigy, 2 Marionettes, Beckoner, 2 Illuminated, Lazarus (One Thousand Faces) Guild: Perdita Ortega (Trick Shooting, Aura Ancestral), Phiona Gage (Debt to the Guild), Francisco Ortega (Wade In, Hermanos De Armas), Austringer, Witchling Stalker, Guild Rifleman, Field Reporter, Guild Pathfinder My preference so far has been to use the Fated upgrade for Collodi but that favours a 'ball of death' approach which isn't really compatible with Interference. So I tried out the Bag of Props limited upgrade with the idea that the two Effigies could follow Collodi around and generate Focus or Defensive as needed for it. The Marionettes were initially included to simply sit in a corner and count for the strategy but I realised that I could get some work out of them for Claim Jump too. Since they had to be forward, I took a gamble on Frame for Murder on the left Marionette too. The Beckoner and pair of Illuminated are a solid team that can handle most cases unless they are really out-matched so my plan was to use them on one side and Collodi, the Effigies and Lazarus on the other. Turn 1: The Pathfinder summons a Clockwork Trap and double walks suspiciously forward. I'm going to have to deal with him eventually, so the Beckoner Lures the woodsman forward and applies Brilliance. The Illuminated make rather heavy work of killing the Pathfinder but eventually he goes down and scores 2VP for Frame For Murder to Martin. Meanwhile, Collodi receives power-ups from the Effigies who also hit it to trigger Run Away Home and start its advance up the table. Most of Martins crew are hiding behind the forest in the centre but for some reason Phiona edges into it so that my crew can see her. Perdita gets El Mayor and Relocates to Francisco to shoot Collodi so it pushes out of range. That massive firing lane down the right side of the board might be a bit of a problem for me. Collodi applies a load of damage and conditions to Phiona and Lazarus helpfully makes it do some more; in the end Phiona has a single wound remaining. Lazarus swaps One Thousand Faces for Mimic's Blessing. Turn 2: The Witchling Stalker and my Marionette on the left drop scheme markers; my Marionette also moves to block the Guild marker from scoring Claim Jump. Phiona uses her single AP to move into the middle of the board and the Austringer delivers orders to get another scheme marker. The Rifleman shoots the Marionette on the left, leaving it on Hard To Kill and the Beckoner polishes off Phiona. After the Rifleman's failure, Francisco takes care of the Marionette which scores me 3VP for my Frame For Murder. I had to cheat high on one attack to make sure that the Rifleman didn't get the job done alone. On the right, my other Marionette drops a marker and moves across the centreline. One Illuminated shoots the Stalker and the other moves up to take the place of the Marionette; Perdita pumps some bullets into him. The Reporter moves up and drops another scheme marker so Collodi creeps across the board to make her pick it up and, later, die to Burning. It kills the Stalker too. I score for Claim Jump and Interference. Turn 3: The Guild win initiative and Perdita has a clear shot at Collodi. Even after using Run Away home to get out of the line of fire after the first shot, the end result is a lot of lead coming from Perdita and a lot of splintered wood on my side of the table. The Illuminated charges Francisco to keep him busy and receives a Flurry in return. Lazarus Focuses to fire a grenade at the Austringer, who throws birds at the Marionette before my totem drops another scheme marker. The Rifleman moves forward, being careful to stay out of Lazarus's range but the Beckoner Lures him forward anyway. The other Illuminated tries to hide from Perdita, then my Effigies either drop scheme markers or get in the way of Martin's Claim Jump as needed. I score for the strategy and Claim Jump again. Turn 4: Francisco finishes the Illuminated off and companions to Perdita who makes short work of my Brutal Effigy. The Marionette drops a final scheme marker before being killed by the Austringer. Lazarus blows up the Rifleman; I might have been better going for the Austringer, but preferred the activation control of killing the Rifleman before it got to do anything this turn. The Illuminated moves up to engage Francisco and Perdita and the rest of my crew move to control quarters and put down scheme markers where needed. I score the last Claim Jump point and another for Interference. Turn 5: The Illuminated fruitlessly pokes Francisco before being killed in return. The Austringer fails to deal with the Arcane Effigy which quickly hides from Perdita. The Guild master rushes over to try to drop the Beckoner but can't go far enough to get the needed number of attacks. The Beckoner and Lazarus take some speculative shots at Perdita but can't kill her either. Martin scores for Claim Jump and neither of us can get anything for Interference. Neverborn win 9 - 3 (3 for Interference, 3 for Claim Jump and 3 for Frame For Murder for me; 1 for Claim Jump and 2 for Frame For Murder for Martin). That was a very fun game; I'm always really pleased to play with people I've never faced previously and Martin was a lovely opponent. I am still getting to grips with how to use Bag Of Props Collodi and I'm not sure I learned much about it here except that I need to be much more careful with positioning and to remember to actually use the Focus / Defensive when I've built it up. Indeed, I feel like the exact same crew but with Fated instead of Bag Of Props would probably have been more useful. Overall I was in control for most of the game, partly because the early demise of the Pathfinder and more particularly Phiona for no real loss on my side built up a big enough attrition advantage that even when Martin did get on with killing my crew I already had scored most of the points needed. Full credit to Martin for doing a great job leveraging Perdita's ranged power to good effect to bring the crew counts back to level. In retrospect I'm not sure why he didn't pick Hunting Party as he had plenty of Henchmen to score it. The table could probably have benefited from a bit more scatter terrain on my right.

These are the first Malifaux Gremlin miniatures I got round to painting. I used Rooster Riders a lot during my brief time playing Gremlins, but I won't write much about them here because the rules have changed since I last did so. Gremlins as a faction just didn't really excite me after a dozen games or so and since then I've moved on to a different faction for my gaming pleasure. Rooster Riders are an absolutely lovely concept and I really enjoyed the idea of crazed Gremlins frantically clinging onto the back of the giant chickens and just hoping for the best while steering them in roughly the correct direction. I've seen a lot of vividly coloured Roosters but I preferred to keep a rather darker tone for the mount in order to make the green of the Gremlin skin stand out more.

Wow, that is one amazing looking Hungering Darkness!

Here's another painted master for my Outcasts; this time it is the tormented spirit Jack Daw. Jack is mainly a control master, handing out the Tormented condition by various methods and using it to push friendlies and enemies alike around as seen fit. Enemies who get the Tormented condition by means of Jack's not-really-an-upgrade cards also have penalties when they try to take certain actions. His main defense is that all attack actions against him are at negative flips; for this reason Jack Daw really hates anyone with a built-in positive flip, or any player who remembers to use the Focus action. In particular there are a lot of these in Ten Thunders and I find him a really risky pick against that faction. I love to play Jack Daw in Headhunter where his ability to push friendly models around is great for picking up heads. He is also pretty nice in any scenario where pieces need to be in particular spots around the centre (for example in Extraction) as it this allows him to keep his own crew within his control auras while disrupting the other crew. Jack Daw was a bit fiddly to paint as I had to work around the rope coiled about him. But overall I found the miniature to be rather satisfying to paint and not only characterful but a good representation of his appearance in the stories. There isn't a lot of scope for complex paint schemes with these large blocks of unbroken texture (i.e. skin, shirt, hood and trousers) which would probably have been highly frustrating for a skilled painter; luckily I do not have that problem. Many have pointed out that he looks like he's playing air guitar, and you can see a (much better painted) version by the highly skilled Maria taken to the next level here.

Nice one; white is a hard colour to get right but you've made them look very like actual lab coats. The basing looks sweet too.

Thank you very much for your nice words. I have to admit that I've hardly ever seen Collodi on the table at events (that I can recall, I've only ever faced it once, played by Greg here); indeed that was part of the draw to use it in the first place. Having written that, I'm quite surprised that Callum and Jamie at least didn't have some familiarity since they're from the same gaming club as Lewis who loaned my the miniature. Lewis gave me some pointers at the start of the day so I suppose that he's tried out Collodi against his clubmates. Unless Gareth has played against Collodi at other tournaments then this would have been his second game; the first one being a sound thrashing he administered to me the previous weekend. I really enjoyed using Collodi; I like the element of control that goes along with the main attack action and I also like to play a lot of minions which seems to fit well. So I imagine that I'll be using Collodi in some further adventures in the year. As for other masters, I haven't tried any of them out other than Jakob Lynch as Ten Thunders so I don't know how I'll expand yet. In some proxy games I've enjoyed Barbaros and Terror Tots so probably Lilith will come into my hands sooner rather than later. I'm happy to take suggestions if anyone recommends anything in particular, though I don't guarantee to actually follow the advice. Mutter - thanks, I'm glad you enjoy them.

This is Taelor, the iconic Outcast henchman (henchwoman?) from Malifaux. She wields a massive hammer with great effect, and can activate an ability that lets her charge any summoned models in range. Not only that, be she is also extremely difficult to get rid of, having both hard to wound and hard to kill abilities. Taelor's main weakness is that she is extremely slow; and spending so many points on a model that will probably spend her first few turns walking is occasionally quite frustrating. Still, Taelor brings a lot to the table, as long as all you really want is for things (especially constructs) to be hammered into the ground like tent-pegs. The miniature is very nice and dynamic, posed partway into smashing her hammer down. I've seen one particularly nice conversion where she is astride Lazarus applying the hammer to his head. The observant might note that her pony tail is on upside-down as I knocked it off while gaming and reasoned that this way round was less likely to catch on things. I like the contrast of the light shirt and dark skin. Her hair is pink partly because I've put some pink on all of my Outcasts and partly because I like the way it ties her in with <a href="https://thebovineoverlord.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/painted-rusty-alyce/" target="_blank">Rusty Alyce</a> with whom she's often competing for space.

Sweet stuff, especially the blood splatter on Karina. Do you really need 6 Freikorpsmen though?

Here is Montresor, the thematic Henchman for the Outcast master Jack Daw. On the table, I've really struggled to get much use out of the big chap since his abilities all revolve around bringing pieces in close to him and keeping them there, but do nothing to stop them from simply killing him once they arrive. He can occasionally get a cheeky Paralyse off on non-Soulstone users but overall the opportunity cost for using Montresor is really high. For a single additional soulstone I could use Taelor, Rusty Alyce or Bishop, all of which I rate much higher than Montresor even with the cost difference. That said, Montresor does have a new free upgrade (i.e. functionally an errata fix) to improve him. I haven't used it so I can't comment on how effective it has been. In contrast to how lacklustre Montresor is on the gaming table, the miniature is really nice. I think he's meant to be part of the Hammer Horror style canon of creepy hangmen, but to me I can't help but think of Lurch from the Addams Family. Despite his ragged appearance I deliberately kept the painting tidy as I think he looks a lot better that way. As usual for my Outcasts Montresor sports some pink attire; his tie in this case.

Good work, especially for someone coming back after an 18 year break. I look forward to seeing it with the basing finished.

I like the painting style a lot. Are the bases for the McMourning crew sculpted yourself from putty or are they resin?

Lovely painting, and despite all the mentions about gaps I think that they're really only noticable on the Insidious Madness. Keep up the great work!